Abel Pereira (musician)

Abel Pereira (born 1978) is a Portuguese horn player. He played as soloist and principal horn in major European orchestras, such as Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Berlin Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2014, he has been Principal Horn of Washington's National Symphony Orchestra. Pereira won several awards and prizes, including the 1998 European Master Prize.

Early life and education
Pereira was born into a family of fishermen in Porto. When he was 10, he started playing French horn at the STCP wind band school of music. He had his first solo performance, Mozart's third horn concerto, at the age of 11.

After attending ARTAVE Professional High School of Music he went to study with Bohdan Sebestik at ESMAE, where he graduated in 1999. He continued his studies in Germany with Marie-Luise Neunecker before he received his master in music industry marketing in 2008 and his PhD in coaching/performance in 2012, both degrees at the University of Porto. During his training he played with the Portuguese Youth Orchestra, Ibero-American Youth Orchestra, Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, and attended master classes with Radovan Vlatkoviæ, Jeffrey Bryant, Stefan Dohr, Dale Clevenger and Hermann Baumann.

Career as horn player
Pereira was the guest soloist at the 36th International Horn Symposium in Valencia, Spain, in 2004. In 2007, he was the artistic director of the First National Horn Congress in Porto. Between 2010 and 2012, he was the guest principal horn in the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

He was a Featured Artist at the 45th International Horn Symposium in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2013, where he premiered as a soloist the horn concerto that the composer Luís Tinoco dedicated to him.

Pereira had his first concert with the Berlin Philharmonic in September 2013 as guest principal horn. He also acted as guest principal horn with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Washington's National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) hired Pereira as principal horn in 2014, during the tenure of Christoph Eschenbach.

One of the high points of Pereira's years in the NSO was the spring 2015 performance of Mahler's 9th Symphony, in which he produced "exquisite and always accurate solos" while leading a horn section with "particularly ebullient and solid playing (...) with almost military precision."

Pereira also became a member of Kennedy Center Chamber Players, drawn from the NSO membership, with whom he first performed at their first concert of the 2015 season. His performance was praised as being "in top form (...) with a consistently elegiac tone, unwavering breath support and power when needed."

Describing his role in the NSO, Anne Midgette wrote: "Pereira, the principal horn player, has been a motivating force; other players are encouraged simply that the orchestra was able to win someone of his caliber. (...) Pereira would make a good poster boy for a new NSO, one representing the very best of musical quality."

He performed more than 50 solo concerts with many internationally renowned orchestras, and played and taught at international music festivals such as Festival de Música do Estoril, Festival de Música de Sintra, Festival de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, CCB Summer Fest, Miami Summer Music Festival, HALCYON New Hampshire, Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Artes de Maputo, Festival de Musique de Besançon, Ossiacher Festspiel Austria, Salzburger Festspiel, BBC Proms, Diaghilev Festival Perm, Athens Music Fest, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Berliner Festspiel, National Orchestra Institute, National Youth Orchestra, and the Brazilian Horn Association.

He has been working with famous conductors and soloists including Carlo Maria Giulini, Mstislav Rostropovich, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Simon Rattle, Emanuel Ax, Radu Lupu, Martha Argerich, Renée Fleming, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Lang Lang. He was the principal horn of the Porto Symphony Orchestra, Casa da Música, for 14 years. Pereira has been hailed as "one of the most renowned Portuguese interpreters of all time".

He plays an Alexander 103 horn with a V. Bach 3 mouthpiece.

Other musical and educational work
Pereira was a professor at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra (ANSO) at the University of Lisbon and at Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE) at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto.

He studied choral conducting with Gunter Argleb and orchestra conducting with Alvaro Salazar at Porto University. Later he attended masterclasses with Professor Colin Matters at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with Maestro Jorma Panula. Pereira was also on the jury for the European Union Youth Orchestra for 10 years and the brass coach for the Ossiach Youth Orchestra in Austria.

His conducting experience includes the Noya Symphony Orchestra in Spain, Orchestra Sinfonia di Rimini in Italy, Vilnius Chamber Orchestra in Lithuania, Zadar Symphony in Croatia and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra in Washington, DC.

Pereira was a founding member of the ARZTIZ Woodwind Quintet, Porto Brass Quintet and Music Director of the Portuguese Horn Ensemble. He is the music director of Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

He has held master classes in Portugal, Spain, Macao, India, Cape Verde, Brazil, Venezuela, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, The United Kingdom, South Africa, and the United States. In 2001 he recorded Mozart's second horn concerto for BBC Television's Mozart for Children.

Awards and recognition
Pereira won the 1998 European Master Prize, which was awarded to him by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bernard Haitink and Lutz Kohler. He also won the Prémio Jovens Músicos - RDP Antena 2, in 1997.

Pereira was awarded at the Leeuwarden International Horn Competition (the Netherlands), Internationaler Instrumentalwettbewerb Markneukirchen (Germany), Concertino Praga (Czech Republic), National Wind Competition (Portugal), Conservatory Souza Lima (Brazil), and Arouca's City Hall (Portugal).

Discography
Pereira's solo discography includes:
 * The complete Mozart Horn Concertos (AP Records)
 * The Urtext Mozart 4th Concerto (EMI Classics)
 * Romantic Repertoire for Horn and Piano, the 1st Horn Concerto by Strauss, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante (Stellenbosch University Records)